Pittman v. Barker
| Decision Date | 17 January 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 9312SC1278,9312SC1278 |
| Parties | Crystal Diane PITTMAN, Plaintiff, v. Dan Taylor BARKER, Sr., Trustee of the Trust under the Will of R.L. Pittman, Sr., Raymond Lupton Pittman, III, Jeanette Grace Pittman (Ford), Sarah Della Pittman, and Sarah Guy Pittman, Executrix of the Estate of Raymond L. Pittman, Jr., Defendants. R. Lupton PITTMAN, III, Third Party Plaintiff, v. Sarah Guy PITTMAN, Third Party Defendant. R. Lupton PITTMAN, III, Plaintiff, v. Sarah Guy PITTMAN, individually and as Executrix of the Estate of Raymond L. Pittman, Jr., Defendant. |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
Wyrick Robbins Yates & Ponton, L.L.P. by Samuel T. Wyrick, III, and L. Diane Tindall, Raleigh, for plaintiff-appellee.
Law Firm of H. Terry Hutchens by H. Terry Hutchens, Fayetteville, and John M. Owens, Cologne, Germany, for defendant-appellant.
Sarah Pittman makes twenty-three separate assignments of error in the record on appeal and brings them forward in five arguments in her brief. Because the trial court did not fully resolve the issues raised by the pleadings and the evidence, we must vacate the judgment and remand the case for further findings.
Sarah Pittman initially contends the trial court erred by failing to join Jeannette Ford and Della Pittman as necessary parties as required by G.S. § 1A-1, Rule 19. Sarah Pittman argues the sisters are united in interest with their brother in the trust estate, and therefore must be joined in his claim against Raymond Pittman's estate for his alleged breach of his fiduciary duty as trustee. We conclude their joinder was not required.
Rule 19 provides:
(a) Necessary joinder.-- ... those who are united in interest must be joined as plaintiffs or defendants; ...
(b) Joinder of parties not united in interest.--The court may determine any claim before it when it can do so without prejudice to the rights of any party or to the rights of others not before the court; but when a complete determination of such claim cannot be made without the presence of other parties, the court shall order such other parties summoned to appear in the action.
"Necessary parties" must be joined in an action, while "proper parties" may be joined. Crosrol Carding Developments v. Gunter & Cooke, 12 N.C.App. 448, 183 S.E.2d 834 (1971).
A necessary party is one who is so vitally interested in the controversy that a valid judgment cannot be rendered in the action completely and finally determining the controversy without his presence. A proper party is one whose interest may be affected by a decree, but whose presence is not essential in order for the court to adjudicate the rights of others. (Citation omitted.)
Id. at 451-52, 183 S.E.2d at 837. A proper party to an action means "a party who has an interest in the controversy or subject matter which is separable from the interest of the other parties before the court, so that it may, but will not necessarily, be affected by a decree or judgment which does complete justice between the other parties." Strickland v. Hughes, 273 N.C. 481, 485, 160 S.E.2d 313, 316 (1968), quoting 67 C.J.S., Parties § 1. "A proper party is one whose interest may be affected by a judgment but whose presence is not essential for adjudication of the action." River Birch Associates v. City of Raleigh, 326 N.C. 100, 129, 388 S.E.2d 538, 555 (1990).
Jeannette Ford and Della Pittman are proper parties to the action rather than necessary parties. The claim upon which Lupton Pittman prevailed was against his father's estate for his breach of fiduciary duty, as trustee, by depleting the trust corpus in order to maximize the income from the trust for himself, as the primary life beneficiary. Jeannette Ford and Della Pittman are not necessary parties for the court to determine the total amount of specific damage caused by Raymond's breach of fiduciary duty to the remaindermen, as their interests are no different than Lupton Pittman's. Nor are the sisters necessary parties in order to determine Lupton Pittman's percentage share of the total damages caused by Raymond Pittman's breach, because his share had already been predetermined by the trust document itself. Though they have undeniable interests which might have been affected by the outcome of this action, they were not essential parties in order for the court to adjudicate the rights of Lupton Pittman as against their father's estate.
Defendant relies on our decision in Wall v. Sneed, 13 N.C.App. 719, 187 S.E.2d 454 (1972), for the proposition that in the context of trust beneficiaries, all persons legally or beneficially interested in the subject matter of the suit, or who will be affected by a decree therein, are necessary parties. However, the holding in Wall is not so broad and that case is readily distinguishable from the case before us.
In Wall, a mother transferred, inter vivos, her interest in certain real estate to one of her sons, allegedly with instructions for him to hold the property in trust and divide it among her children who had not already been conveyed a portion of the property earlier. Upon the mother's death, the son instead attempted to purchase all his siblings' claims to the property in question.
The eleven plaintiffs sued to determine their rights to the property. On appeal, however, this Court identified several other siblings and relations with important interests. Four of the non-plaintiff siblings had allegedly been paid by the son for their interests in the property. Nevertheless, there was a deed in the record indicating that the four had transferred their interests to a daughter of one of the plaintiffs. Thus not only was there a dispute as to the existence of the trust, there was a controversy as to who held the interests of the unjoined siblings. As noted in the opinion, "it appears [the unjoined parties] have rights in the subject matter of this controversy which must be ascertained and settled before the rights of the present plaintiffs and defendants can be completely and finally adjudicated and determined." Id. at 724-25, 187 S.E.2d at 457. Joinder of the other siblings was found to be necessary, and the case was remanded.
No such confusion exists here. The trust is explicit in determining the proportionate share to which each of the remainder beneficiaries is entitled. There is no unascertained interest in the trust. Whether or not the other remainder beneficiaries were parties to the action would have no impact on the amount of total damages determined by the court to have been caused by Raymond Pittman's breach nor the proportionate share of those damages to be awarded to Lupton Pittman. Though they are proper parties by their common interest in the trust corpus, Jeannette Ford and Della Pittman are not necessary parties, and the trial court was not obligated to join them under G.S. § 1A-1, Rule 19.
Whether proper parties will be ordered joined rests within the sound discretion of the trial court. Carding Developments v. Gunter & Cooke, supra. We note that both Jeannette Ford and Della Pittman were parties to the original suit brought by Crystal Pittman, in which Lupton Pittman advanced the crossclaim upon which he ultimately recovered. Each had an opportunity to join in the crossclaim; neither chose to do so. The record discloses no abuse of the trial court's discretion by denying the motion to join the sisters.
Sarah Pittman also argues that the trial court erred by allowing into evidence two deeds which had not been listed by Lupton Pittman as exhibits in the pretrial order. The deeds were both dated 21 April 1967 and conveyed an undivided interest in property, known as the Sykes Pond Property, from Raymond Pittman, as trustee, to himself individually and, subsequently, from himself individually, to himself and Sarah Pittman as tenants by the entireties. The deeds were admitted during the examination of Sarah Pittman as an adverse witness by Lupton Pittman's counsel, over her objection on the grounds of unfair surprise. Lupton Pittman's counsel explained that the deeds had only been discovered the previous day during a title search with respect to the property and that Lupton Pittman had no knowledge of the existence or content of the deeds prior thereto. Sarah Pittman contends on appeal that she had no opportunity to prepare a defense to the presumption of fraud created by the exhibits.
The admissibility of such evidence is a matter committed to the sound discretion of the trial court, and its decision will not be reviewed unless an abuse of discretion is shown. Matter of Will of Maynard, 64 N.C.App. 211, 307 S.E.2d 416 (1983), disc. review denied, 310 N.C. 477, 312 S.E.2d 885 (1984). No abuse of discretion has been shown here. The deeds were not discovered until the trial was underway, thus, they could not have been listed in the pretrial order. Sarah Pittman was a grantor in one of the deeds; both deeds were in her chain of title. Her counsel was sufficiently familiar with the transaction to be able to cross-examine another of Lupton Pittman's witnesses about the division of the property. Moreover, the record reflects that after the exhibits were introduced on Friday, the trial was recessed until the following Monday afternoon, allowing Sarah Pittman additional time to examine the documents, explore the transactions evidenced by them, and meet the exhibits. Her assignments of error with respect to the admission into evidence of the deeds are overruled.
Next Sarah Pittman contends that the trial court erred by finding that Raymond Pittman had breached his fiduciary duty as trustee. She argues (1) that the claim was barred by the statute of limitations and by the equitable defenses of estoppel, laches, ratification, and waiver; (2) that the trial court applied an erroneous standard to Raymond Pittman's actions as trustee; and (3) that the trial court unfairly excluded the testimony of one of her expert witnesses...
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